Very poorly slow worm

[WombatNo1]

Hi, First time on the forum, came looking for advise on helping a very injured Slow Worm. It's too late now as I'm pretty sure it's dead but want to know for future reference what I should have done. It had lost part of it's tail in the past (not a problem I know) but also had a nasty fresh open wound. It appeared on my patio yesterday - presumably delivered by a local cat
It was very slow but managed to get itself to a dark spot just under the house. Looked more lively this morning but now tummy up
Despite being in a built up area we do see Slow Worms and frogs from time to time and as I'm planning on moving to a more rural area soon I wanted to find out what we should have done? We both felt that it should be put out of its misery but stupidly didn't know how best to do that.
I'm sorry I didn't look here yesterday now, might it have been helped if we'd kept it warm? Basically I don't know, so here I am.
All advise much appreciated.
Tracy

[demicav]

Hi, welcome to WAB. I'm very sorry to hear about the Slow Worm. I'm inclined to think that there probably wasn't much more you could have done. It's injuries sound like they were pretty bad and the problem with cats is they can introduce infection to the wound. The main thing is you cared enough to take the time to try and do something. As for putting it out of its misery, I wouldn't know where to start with that one, I'm not very good at that sort of thing. However I'm sure someone else will advise.

[djackso]

Slow Worms are protected by law, so I'm not sure of the legalities of killing one.

You might try contacting the :

The Herpetological Conservation Trust

enquiries@herpconstrust.org.uk

[Ukwildlifeo]

First of all as demicav said well done for caring enough. Reptiles can often survive injuries that would kill and mammal, so killing it may not have been the best way forward anyway. The slowworm may not be dead as I often find them upsidedown for some reason

Its sad to hear yet another case of a cat killing a slowworm - in fact cats are probably the main cause of death to slowworms these days, and is probably the reason there less common in gardens these days

[marvin]

well done for taking the time to care for the injured slowworm.

for more advice try here.

HerpVet Information

tim

[Kayleigh]

Hi and welcome to WAb..All i can do it echo everyone else,s response

[deer boy]

Hi Tracy welcome to WAB hope u enjoy

Sorry to hear about your Slow Worm.

[WombatNo1]

Good Morning and thank you all for your responses and welcomes

I'll get here sooner next time I have a query

[arvensis]

As has been mentioned, it is illegal to kill or injure slowwies, so putting it out of its misery is a total no-no.

As for cats, all they seem to do is kill things for the fun of it. I'm not too keen on them and it seems there's too many of them in Britain.

Mark

[djackso]

One might argue there are too many people (who own too many cats) - there are certainly too many cars, too much litter, too much pollution - the list goes on.

[thunder]

Originally Posted by arvensis

As has been mentioned, it is illegal to kill or injure slowwies, so putting it out of its misery is a total no-no.


Mark

Absolute nonsense. No legislation makes it illegal to put a badly injured animal out of its misery. You run more risk of being prosecuted for allowing an animal to suffer if you do nothing!

henrya

[arvensis]

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